Incumbents Reign in Rabun
Well, I don't know what happened with the rest of the country, but in my little part of Northeast Georgia, the voters went to the polls and said they wanted more of the same. Congressman Charlie Norwood, as predicted, blew Terry Holley out of the water with 67% of the vote. Nancy Schaefer faced off the challenge from Carol Jackson in the 50th District State Senate Seat. Only a minor lead in most counties. As for State representatives, a new rule will soon be enforced where only Stephens County will vote for the 28th state representative, and only Union County will vote for 8th District State Representative. Republican Bill Quarterman had wins in both Banks and Franklin, but Jeanette Jamieson had enough votes in her home town to hang in there. The same, only more so for the 8th district, where Charles Jenkins was defeated by Rabun County Republican Frank Wheeler in every county except Union. Reminds me of how great a thing the Electoral College is on the federal level.
As for the National season, the GOP got trounced, like many expected it to. This is being painted as a rejection of President Bush and the War. I would dispute that. I think it was a rejection of the Republican controlled congress for failing to be conservative enough. The people wanted immigration control, and didn't get it. There were confusion on judicial appointments (Miers!), and no real interesting initiatives from the congress except for outlawing online gambling, which they snuck in to a security bill. Social Security Reform flopped, no movement on Immigration, Port security reform was a joke. With the Republican in majority they still failed to move their platform forward. With a Democratic majority in the House, (and likely in the Senate) We'll see if they can move forward with their platform of surrender in Iraq, repealing tax cuts, terminating interrogations and military tribunals, and giving union pay outs by raising the minimum wage. It's an ambitious program of rolling back the clock, so we'll see what happens.
Update: AJ Wright asked me about what questions I was asking voters coming out of the polls. It wasn't an out and out exit poll. I didn't ask people who they voted for. What I asked was, "What issues were on your mind as you casted your ballot." The answers were a little bit disturbing. Part of it is being put on the spot with a microphone always confuses people, but I definetely did not see any trend at all which indicated that voters leaning heavily to thinking national vs. local, or for or against the war, or any other major trend. And I don't believe voters here are any less or more clueless than the rest of the country. Which is why I reject the national media's constant chirping that the election was a referendum on "president bush" or "the war in Iraq."
As for the National season, the GOP got trounced, like many expected it to. This is being painted as a rejection of President Bush and the War. I would dispute that. I think it was a rejection of the Republican controlled congress for failing to be conservative enough. The people wanted immigration control, and didn't get it. There were confusion on judicial appointments (Miers!), and no real interesting initiatives from the congress except for outlawing online gambling, which they snuck in to a security bill. Social Security Reform flopped, no movement on Immigration, Port security reform was a joke. With the Republican in majority they still failed to move their platform forward. With a Democratic majority in the House, (and likely in the Senate) We'll see if they can move forward with their platform of surrender in Iraq, repealing tax cuts, terminating interrogations and military tribunals, and giving union pay outs by raising the minimum wage. It's an ambitious program of rolling back the clock, so we'll see what happens.
Update: AJ Wright asked me about what questions I was asking voters coming out of the polls. It wasn't an out and out exit poll. I didn't ask people who they voted for. What I asked was, "What issues were on your mind as you casted your ballot." The answers were a little bit disturbing. Part of it is being put on the spot with a microphone always confuses people, but I definetely did not see any trend at all which indicated that voters leaning heavily to thinking national vs. local, or for or against the war, or any other major trend. And I don't believe voters here are any less or more clueless than the rest of the country. Which is why I reject the national media's constant chirping that the election was a referendum on "president bush" or "the war in Iraq."
4 Comments:
David...I believe as you do that lots of people don't know why they voted the way they did. I did talk to some people yesterday that said they voted straight democratic on the ballot because their dislike of President Bush.
In Iowa the main race that seemed to get most people talking was the agriculture commission for the state. One of the candidates is in big support for alternate fuels and with E85 being mostly from corn and Iowa being a corn producing state, that was a really big issue. I believe the voters went for the candidate who plans to expand the state's ability to produce E 85.
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Interesting. I'd heard something about that on the national news, with E 85 in the mid-western states, but it was something to do with a candidate embarassing herself/himself by not knowing about it. I think though that despite what people say it's issues like that (corn based fuels in Iowa) that voters go to the polls for. "All Politics is Local" I think remains a truism.
E-85 doesn't get as good of milage as regular gas...or so they say. Our suburban is a fuel flexible vehicle and I have noticed no difference in the milage when using E-85.
In Estherville E-85 is abour 20 cents cheaped a gallon and in Mankato, the half way point to my parent's home, E-85 is about 60 cents cheaper a gallon. And with a 30 gallon tank, that's a decent savings.
The two biggest economic happings here are related to alternate fuels. Just to the East of Estherville they're building a E-85 plant and recently there was an announcement of a bio-diesel plant building in Estherville. I would bet within the next 10 years, Estherville may become the midwestern hub for alternate fuels. We already have two plants in the area and two more being built.
AJ
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